4.  The applicant was born in was born in 1967 and lives in the village of Khotyn, Rivne region, Ukraine.
5.  On 28 April 1996 the Bereznivsky District Prosecutor’s Office (Березнівська районна прокуратура) opened a criminal investigation into the murder of the applicant’s wife. On the same day the applicant was arrested.
6.  On 7 May 1996 the applicant was charged with the murder of his wife.
7.  The applicant was released on 20 February 1997 subject to a written undertaking not to abscond. On 31 March 1999 the Bereznivsky District Prosecutor’s Office dropped the charges against the applicant on the ground of lack of evidence.
8.  On 31 January 2000 the Rivne Regional Court (Рівненський обласний суд) found Mr K. guilty of the murder concerned. On 15 June 2000 the Supreme Court (Верховний Суд України) upheld the judgment of 31 January 2000. In a separate ruling, issued on the same day, the Supreme Court informed the Prosecutor General (Генерального прокурора) that there had been procedural irregularities in the criminal proceedings against the applicant.
9.  The applicant brought proceedings for compensation for unlawful criminal prosecution. On 11 September 2001 the Bereznivsky District Court of the Rivne Region (місцевий суд Березнівського району Рівненської області, hereafter “the Bereznivsky Court”) granted this claim and awarded him 50,000[1] Ukrainian Hryvnias (UAH) against the State in compensation for moral damage. The court judgment contained an instruction to the applicant to present a copy of it to the local department of the State Treasury (Державне казначейство) for enforcement. This judgment was not appealed against and became final.
10.  According to the Government the applicant did not comply with the above instruction of the Bereznivsky Court.
11.  The applicant stated that he did submit a copy of the judgment to the State Treasury for enforcement. In support of this statement he provided the Court with a copy of a letter of 27 September 2001 in which the Bereznivsky District Department of the State Treasury (Відділення державного казначейства у Березнівському районі Рівненської області) informed the Bereznivsky Court that the State Budget for 2001 did not include funds which could be used to pay the applicant.
12.  On 5 and 22 April 2005 respectively the Bereznivsky District Department of the State Treasury sent copies of the judgment concerned to the Bereznivsky District Bailiffs’ Service (Відділ державної виконавчою служби Беренівського районного управління юстиції Рівненської області) and the Central Department of the Bailiffs’ Service (Відділ примусового виконання Департаменту державної виконавчої служби), stating that the lack of budget funds prevented it from honouring this judgment and inviting the Bailiffs’ Service to open enforcement proceedings in its respect.
13.  On 16 May 2005 the Central Department of the Bailiffs’ Service found that a copy of the court judgment, without a writ of execution, was an insufficient ground for initiating the enforcement proceedings.
14.  On 25 December 2006 the same department of the Bailiffs’ Service refused to accept the writ of execution issued by the Bereznivsky Court because it did not contain the exact address of the State Treasury and had been submitted by the applicant outside the three-year time limit provided by law for compulsory execution.